Dear Neighbor,
This House’s omnibus finance bills are making their way through the final committee stops in preparation to being voted on by the full body after the Legislature takes this week off to observe the Easter/Passover holidays.
Once we return, there will only be four full working weeks left before the 2019 session is set to adjourn. That means a whole lot of work will have to take place in a relatively tight time line to get our next state budget enacted. To complicate matters, the House and Senate committee structures are completely different so it will be a real undertaking to get bills aligned for final passage.
We can take a closer look various budget bills as they come to the floor, but one thing we are seeing they have in common is significant tax increases that are proposed by House Democrats. In all, they are looking to raise taxes by more than $12 billion over the next four years. This includes taxes on health care, gasoline (20 cents more per gallon), and beyond.
Here are the major components which add up to more than $12 billion over the next four years:
- Tax bill (tax hikes only): $4,004,690,000
- Transportation bill: $3,873,948,000
- Provider tax: $2,550,277,000
- Paid Family Leave: $2,074,755,000
These tax increases would be very problematic and should be stripped out by the time these bills come around for votes on final passage. It is hard to justify raising taxes by more than $12 billion, especially at a time the state has a $1 billion surplus.
The most notable news from the floor last week is that a bill (H.F. 50) prohibiting drivers from using hand-held cell phones received final broad, bipartisan approval in the House and has been enacted into law by the governor. It’s not a perfect bill, but it will make our roads safer and two somewhat controversial provisions (one regarding hijabs and another pertaining to police profiling) were removed by a conference committee.
As it passed, the bill allows drivers to use phones and other devices as long as they are affixed to the vehicle and hands-free methods are used. Navigation apps still could be used as long as programming is done outside the flow of traffic. Offenders would be charged a $50 fine, but repeat offenses could top $200. The bill takes effect this coming Aug. 1.
Sincerely,
Paul